US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Donald Trump’s recent critical statements about Volodymyr Zelenskyy are due to the fact that the US president is upset with the actions of his Ukrainian counterpart. Rubio informed about this in an interview with journalist Catherine Herridge, publicized on Thursday.

Asked what he thought when Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” Rubio replied that, “I think President Trump is very upset at President Zelenskyy,” in particular, his lack of gratitude for American aid and his refusal to sign an agreement on Ukrainian rare-earth minerals.

“We had a conversation with President Zelenskyy (…). And we discussed this issue about the mineral rights, and we explained to them, ‘Look, we want to be in a joint venture with you—not because we’re trying to steal from your country, but because we think that’s actually a security guarantee,’” Rubio added.

According to him, Zelenskyy expressed a wish to sign this agreement, but added that, “The only thing is I need to run it through my legislative process.”

“I read two days later that Zelenskyy is out there saying:  ‘I rejected the deal; I told them no way, that we’re not doing that.’  Well, that’s not what happened in that meeting.  So, you start to get upset by somebody—we’re trying to help these guys,” added the US Secretary of State.